The corner of Wilson Street and James Street North – the “Entrance to the Arts District” – is a site that highlights some of the tensions between downtown Hamilton’s past, present and future. Five double-banner stands were erected in the 1980s, abandoned in the ’90s and re-claimed by the arts in 2015 to celebrate Hamilton as the host of the Juno Awards. ENRAGED, INERTIA RAN OFF is a contemporary art intervention by the Red Tree Artists’ Collective, signaling transformation of not only the site, but also of traditional skills employed by women in a post-industrial society, stitching together the divide between traditional craft and fine art. Automatized machinery now performs activities that women used to do in the privacy of the domestic sphere – stitching, embroidering, sewing, knitting – but here they are displayed in a public space.

This project is dedicated to the memory of Amelia Jiménez (1949-2016), who contributed much to arts education and community arts in Hamilton and the surrounding area. Her work from 1994 is a symbolic representation of movement and transience, of time moving forward with no going back. Only through the existence of the body can a work of art be made in order to transcend the artist herself. Just as with the ancient learning of a craft transmitted from one generation to the next, we are left with memories of the time spent with Amelia and what we learned from her.

-supported by the City of Hamilton City Enrichment Fund
and the Ontario Arts Council

-special thanks to the City of Hamilton Public Works Department, Public Art, and Ward 2 Councillor Jason Farr.